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Alternative Free Hosting Panels - Ease of Migration

Discussion in 'Install & Upgrades or Pre-Install Questions' started by KlueMaster, Jun 30, 2019.

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  1. Jun 30, 2019 #1
    KlueMaster

    KlueMaster Member

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    I've faced a strange problem. A client who is currently hosting a few WordPress based sites with me (currently hosted on CMM) is now asking for a GUI based control panel. I would be OK if he was choosing cPanel, but he is actually looking for a free web based panel. For now, I'm planning to buy a separate VPS instance for him, install a web panel, and migrate his sites on to that VPS. I can then use the same VPS to host any other clients who has similar GUI requirements.

    This brings to my question: which free hosting panels are easiest from the perspective of site migration from/to CMM? I've already explained to the client that there will be some drop in the performance, but I don't think he will accept a significant drop or much disruption.

    Looking forward to some guidance here.
     
  2. Jun 30, 2019 #2
    eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

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    hmmm that is something I haven't thought about much folks migrating away from Centmin Mod :D Probably you'd want input and feedback from folks who have actually do such migrations away from Centmin Mod - as I certainly haven't done it much at all :)

    But the below 2 guides/links for migration to Centmin Mod are worth reading still as the base knowledge of backups, transfer and restores are the same i.e. using tar, rsync, mysqldump etc. Just the source and destination for data differs. Also the config files overview page will allow you to understand what in Centmin Mod needs backing up and transferring.
    1. Moving Centmin Mod site data to another Centmin Mod server
    2. Moving cPanel/WHM site data to Centmin Mod server
    3. Centmin Mod official config files overview page Centmin Mod Configuration Files - CentminMod.com LEMP Nginx web stack for CentOS
     
  3. Jun 30, 2019 #3
    KlueMaster

    KlueMaster Member

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    I understand. And while we are discussing CMM configuration file, it reminds me of another question I wanted to ask (specially since I got locked out of my account a day after a fresh install, and had to reinstall the OS itself):

    Is there a simple way to backup CMM sites to offline storage, and then restore from the backup on a fresh CMM installation (on the same machine)? Here we are talking of back-up/restore on the same machine between two installs of CMM (usually after OS refresh), so data migration guide between 2 CMM installations is not applicable.
     
  4. Jun 30, 2019 #4
    eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

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  5. Jul 1, 2019 #5
    Jimmy

    Jimmy Well-Known Member

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    If that was my client I would tell him that either he goes with cPanel / CMM or he finds someone else to manage his sites (if he only wants a panel). While I'm sure there are some secure free panels out there, I wouldn't trust any of the free offerings (at least the last time I checked). It took me awhile to trust centmin mod. I spent a lot of time on this site and testing before I made the move from cPanel to centmin mod. Now I trust CMM 100%.

    At one point, in the past, I had researched moving from cPanel to a free panel. While some looked good, there always seems to be some security issue in the panel's past. How fast is the free developer going to patch the security issue? What if the panel's community is non-existent and it's hard to get support to fix an issue?

    You not only have to deal with Wordpress security issues, but you'll also have to deal with the "free panel" security issues. At least with cPanel you know there are thousands of installs out there and a solid team working on the project. Are you prepared to clean up when the client gets clicky with his new free panel and something breaks?

    When the guy does something to that free panel and opens up a security hole and then you have to spend time cleaning up the mess, you'll probably wonder why he didn't use cPanel in the first place. Sounds like he wants to save a few dollars and throw it on your shoulders to make sure everything is secure like cPanel.

    My advice, signup for hostgator or namecheap hosting which includes cPanel and it's cheap! Use cloudflare with that and the site will be really fast. I have a few client sites setup on namecheap shared hosting and they load really quick - probably because hosting nowadays is so monitored that they're not the same as the hosting packages from the past. I paid a whole year for the hosting and I charge my client XX a month. Any issues, I submit a support ticket. While I like CMM for my sites, sometimes having clients site on cheap reliable shared hosting comes with next to zero hassle. Setup the site and the hosting provider basically takes care of the rest.
     
  6. Jul 1, 2019 #6
    eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

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    Indeed trust is a big thing and takes time to earn :) I've only ever used cpanel/WHM before I developed Centmin Mod. But did have a play with Plesk sometimes due to my clients using them and never liked Plesk back then. But given my main job is doing server optimisation work for paying clients, and that these clients may eventually be moving from cPanel to DirectAdmin which is the leading alternative, looks like I need to start playing with DirectAdmin to learn the ropes too :)

    I am writing backup/import scripts for cPanel/WHM to Centmin Mod LEMP stack for a client right now so maybe another import script from DirectAdmin to Centmin Mod further down the track :D Of course still working on Centmin Mod to Centmin Mod backup/importer too :)
     
  7. Jul 1, 2019 #7
    Jimmy

    Jimmy Well-Known Member

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    I used Plesk once and hated it. That was awhile ago, so maybe things have changed.

    I researched DirectAdmin awhile back and did a search for hacking DirectAdmin and came up with some interesting results. Nothing is 100% secure, but there are a few that are quite close - CMM, cPanel, and a server without networking. :ROFLMAO:
     
  8. Jul 1, 2019 #8
    KlueMaster

    KlueMaster Member

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    Well, here the client had decided as I couldn't recommend any. He is going with virtualmin. Although his reason (integrated mailbox and varnish cache) doesn't look convincing to me. Going forward I'll be only responsible for site changes along with hosting, although site's maintenance, DNS, backup etc will be his own responsibility.

    Now, the bugger is that virtualmin uses Apache (nginx only as reverse proxy), so I won't be able to just copy over nginx folders, as @eva2000 had suggested towards CMM backup. Will look at using WP migration plugins.
     
  9. Jul 1, 2019 #9
    eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

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    the day in the life of a sysadmin it seems :D
     
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